Customs by Yodaking - Ronin House

[Yodaking]

I've been checking out the custom work getting posted here for the past few months and it inspired me to make some custom Heroscape terrain of my own. I have been wanting to post pictures of what I had made for a while but only recently gained access to a digital camera. So now that I finally have some pics to share, I wanted to get them up and hopefully inspire someone else.

I put together a game board using all the custom terrain I have made thus far and will post a few wide angle pictures of it first. I'll add some close ups of specific peices in later posts in this thread, but first I just wanted to get the image posting process down before uploading all the pics.

Here goes, let me know if you can't see them.

 

[Yodaking]

Well I can see them and they turned out pretty good so I don't think I will need to do any more editing. So I'm off to upload some more pics, then I'll post them here once I get finished.

 

[Fuzzie Fuzz]

Cool! I like the tower the best. Nice cat, by the way.

 

[Yodaking]

I too didn't feel like wating for the new jungle set to come out and I wanted some swamp themed LOS blockers. So I pulled out some old aquarium plants I had been holding onto and went to work. I actually did a little mix and matching of different plant parts to get some origonal looking ones. They were pretty simple, here is the basic formula.

The plants already had a stem so I just drilled a hole of the same diameter as the stem, into the center of the tile. Then put the stem in the hole and glued it in place using crazy glue. I then covered the tile around the plant with some model railroad grass I had. I tossed the packaging along time ago so I don't know what the offical name of it is but you will see that I use it quite a bit. It's just a personnel preference but I like it better then the standard flock used by most as it is thicker and fuller. I always felt the grass flock used on most figure bases makes it look like everyone is fighting on a golf course green.

On this one I actually used a small nail (with the tip clipped off) to stablize the plant as it was so tall. I just slid it up through the hole I had drilled and into the center of the plant. Now it does not tip over.

These two were made on a double tile as I thought they looked good together. I painted the base green but didn't like the color so I extended the grass out to the very edges to cover it up. I also painted the bud at the top of the one plant so give it some more color.

I have two of these bushes but only took close ups of the one as they are exactly the same. I thought these would work great as movement blockers as well as LOS bloskers and they do. I used a 3 tile base and drilled the hole in the very center of it where the 3 tiles come together. Since it was such a full bush I did not add any grass to the base on these.

 

[Yodaking]

I need to take off for a bit but I'll get some more pics uploaded later on tonight and/or tomorrow.

Oh, and the non heroscape figures you see are from Warhammer 40K in case you were wondering.

 

[scottishlad5]

nice! the cat look devious, don't they always.

 

[Yodaking]

nice! the cat look devious, don't they always.

The cat is actually Utgar!

 

[Yodaking]

As some of you have no doubt already guessed the rock formation were made out of a cardboard egg carton. I was hunting around for something to work with (as I didn't feel like leaving the house and buying more materials) when I came across the egg carton. I like keeping my cost to a minimum if possible.

My priority for this project was to make some movement blockers but they can double as LOS blockers if used right. They were very easy to make as I just grabbed some scissors and glue, then started cutting.

I cut the top off the bottom, flipped the bottom over and trimmed off all the parts that were preventing me from laying it flat. I knew I wanted some low rock walls that would force walking figures to go around them so I cut off two rows of 4 'eggs.' I lined them up along some HS tiles, then cut one off of each one and repositioned it so that it would follow the hex shape of a HS tile board. The 'eggs' are a little bigger then a HS hex and I wanted them to be defensive formations so I placed a double hex behind the rock wall and designed it (by cutting some more) to fit along side a raised double hex. Once I was happy with how it was shaped I glued it together.

Next I just cut the top up into different shapes and sizes and added them to the parts I had already trimmed off the bottom. I then started gluing these odd shapes all over the 'eggs' to give it the rocky appearence. Once they were dried I used contour putty to fill in and smooth out the places where the carboard joined together.

I made a base for it by just placing it onto of a large index card and tracing the bottom. Then I cut that shape out and glued it to the bottom. It was not an even match in several places due to my unplanned cutting but I easily filled in the cracks with left over cardboard strips (glued in) and more contour putty.

To paint it I just spray painted it all black. Painted a solid grey over that as my base rock color then started dry brushing different shades of greys as well as a few other colors of choice (I used brown along the base of one and an off white along the top). I finished all of them by drybrushing white on the tops and any edges that jutted out. It gave it a nice weather worn look.

Once all the paint had dried I glued some grass along the bottom edges. This served two purposes. It covered up some parts along the bottom edge that still didn't look right and the green contrasts with the grey rock for a nice look.

Here you can see the archers are sitting up on some higher hexes making for a nice defense formation that also gives them the attack bonus.

This pic didn't turn out too well but it shows how I used one to make a nice cliff edge/LOS blocker. I had to move the rocks back a bit when I set it up because otherwise it hung over the edge.

Once I finished the two rock walls I used the remaining block of 4 'eggs' just as they were to make this formation. It fits perfectly on a 7 hex tile. When making game boards, I like to stack up some of the 7 hex tiles to create towers figures have to move around. It has the side effect of creating a hiding spot for fliers and others with special moves though. By placing the rocks on top, it prevents anyone from landing on top of the tower. It also saves me a few 7 hex tile pieces since I don't have to build it as high now to achieve the same LOS blocking effect.

 

[Yodaking]

The tower came from an old Weapons and Warriors game set. In it one side had a castle wall with a few half towers. I took the two towers that were copies of one another and placed them back to back to form one full tower. Before I did this though I had to seal up all the parts that had been designed to break for the game. I trimmed a few parts to make tighter fits, then superglued them into place. Then I once again used contour putty to fill in all the cracks. I cut out two pieces of cardboard (from a standard box) to fit inside the tower walls, overlapping where the two towers would be joined together. I glued one to each tower, let them dry and then joined the to halves together (adding glue once more). This gave me one solid tower.

The two original tower fronts were already detailed but the sides were flat and had no details as that was where they were suppose to join up with the castle wall. So I had to create the details for two sides from scratch.

I made some small 'bricks' using thin white board and glued them into place along the top. I then designed and made the wood door on one side and made a trap door for the top as well. I just cut out an index card to fit in the area I wanted to cover up. Then glued some wooden stir sticks (used for coffee, I grabbed a ton for free at a FF resturant) to the index card and trimmed them to size. I made a door handle using the same wooden stir sticks (a few small pieces as spacers). I painted and set aside for later.

The Jandar wall I made using the same technique but used tounge depressers instead of the stir sticks. To make the Jandar symbol I measured the dimentions of the outer hex off of one of the cards and multipled those numbers by 4. Then I used the resulting dimentiones to mark off and draw the hex using a pencil. I practiced this on a piece of paper first to make sure it would be the size I wanted. Then I measured off a few key spots of the design and marked their locations on the large Hex to use as reference points. Then I just scetched out the design free hand while looking at the real design, using the reference points to keep everything in perspective. Once I was satisfied I could pull it off I repeated the process on the wooded wall I had made. Then painted it free hand using white paint. Once the symbol was dry I painted around it with the blue.

I spray painted the tower black. Then I painted the tower grey and the stones at the base a different shade of grey. I dry brushed a couple of different shades of grey and off whites on to each, careful to use different combos for the tower and the stones. There was already a vine design on the tower so I first painted those green but I was unhappy with how it looked. After seeing someones' (I forget who) work on here where they had used flock to create wall moss/vines, I decided to try the same thing with the grass I had and it worked out great. So I added a some more vines to the custom brinks I had made above the door and wall piece to tie the whole thing together. I then added the custom doors and Wall hanging to complete the tower.

The fist pic is a bit fuzzy but the other two turned out good.

 

[Yodaking]

The last items were actually the first ones I made. I didn't yet have the RTFF set yet and wanted some trees for LOS blockers. While going through my old Weapons and Warriors sets I came across a package of trees.

Thier were 7 'flat' trees in that they were 3-D but the branches only came out of the trunk along a straight axis. So I cut the branches off of 3 of the trees and pinned them to the remaining 4 trees. I did this by drilling a small hole into the end of the branches as well as in the tree trunk where I wanted the branches to go. I then used wire cutters to snip a paperclip into a few small lengths and used the wire to support the new branches. I glued it all together using superglue and then used my contour putty to fill in the gaps and smooth it all out. I now had 3-D trees.

I tend to experiment a bit when I paint so the tree trunks are different combos of colors. The technique was the same with one coat of one color (over a balck base coat) followed by a different color dry brushed over top.

After painting them I picked up some clump foilage from a local model train hobby store. I glued the foilage pieces to the branches until I was happy with how it looked. You will also notice that on one I added some of my grass through out to give it a two colored leaf effect.

As for the base, I drilled a hole into the bottom of the trunk and a hole into the center of the hex tile. This was done before paining began. Then I used a small nail to secure it in place and glued it all together after I was finished painting the tree trunks.

I made one double and 2 singles out of the 4 trees I had. I used the grass to cover the hex base and added a few small stones for effect. While I really like how they turned out, after seeing some of the other trees done on here I want to eventually make some bigger ones.

 

[Taelord]

Very spectacular job. Those are truly amazing customs.

 

[turok]

Nice job. I like the tower. Why don't you try using real rocks for line of site blockers? The egg carton rocks or pretty good, but nothing beats real rock to simulate rock . I live out in the country so there are rocks all over. I look for ones with an intersesting shape and a flatter bottom, so it can stand on it's own. If you don't have any rocks nearby, take a drive out to a bush or whatever and go rock hunting.

thanks for sharing your stuff.

 

[Yodaking]

Nice job. I like the tower. Why don't you try using real rocks for line of site blockers? The egg carton rocks or pretty good, but nothing beats real rock to simulate rock . I live out in the country so there are rocks all over. I look for ones with an intersesting shape and a flatter bottom, so it can stand on it's own. If you don't have any rocks nearby, take a drive out to a bush or whatever and go rock hunting.

thanks for sharing your stuff.

I live out in the counrty too so their are plenty of rocks to be found. I use the small ones on bases from time to time. I suppose I could use some large ones like you suggested but the cardboard ones I made are nice and light weight. Plus I don't have to worry about someone accidently knocking them off a cliff ledge and crushing one of my plastic figures standing below.

 

[Yodaking]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

It has been a long time since I updated this thread. Since then I have made a bunch of stuff for the Custom Terrain Contests but never added them to my thread. I'll just keep one entry per post so keep checking back until I'm done. Hope you all enjoy them all.

Here is the smallest and simplest one I made for the contest, yet perhaphs the one that turned out the best. I'll let you decide on that. I call it an Ox Cart. When I was working on it I had planned from the beginning to give it away as a prize for an upcomming tournament. So even though I really liked it, I still gave it away with plans on making another one for myself. Still haven't gotten around to making the second one though. I know I will at some point as I still have all the materials.

There is one thing I want to do differently when I make the next one. The barrels are solid wood (picked up at Hobby Lobby for very cheap), so instead of just painting on the lines that make the invidual planks, I want to try carving the lines into them.

Oh and the well you see in the background was a premade piece I picked up and repainted. So I didn't actually make the item, but I did make it better.

 

[Yodaking]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

Here is my attempt to make a Stone Henge type expansion pack.

 

[Yodaking]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

Realy liked how this bridge turned out. Yes it is pretty big but has made for some great 'capture and hold the bridge until reinforcement arrive' senerios. It might look best with Marvel figures but I think it looks great with classic scape too.

As was mentioned in the contest thread in which it was entered, the bridge started out it's life as a wooden 3-D Eiffle Tower I picked up on sale for $5 at Micheals Craft Store. Also bought a long plank of balsa wood to use for the road base, a thin sheet of balsa wood to make the tile spaces, and some popsickle sticks as cross beams on the legs. Lots of cutting and sanding went into it to turn it into the bridge you now see but it was all time well spent IMO.

 

[Yodaking]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

Here is my Egypt themed terrain. I think it turned out pretty good. Lots of intersting LOS blockers and movement obsticals. Just wish I had some cool scorpion type figures to use with it.

When I started to make it I was planning on doing a step by step tutorial but then got carried away with my work and forgot all about taking pictures. So here is a pic of what I started out with, than a pic of what I made before adding paint.

Here are some close ups of how they turned out after painting and adding any other finishing touches.

The one I like the least is the little archer platform thing. It was really made as an after thought. I was trying to find a way to use that tile I picked up at Home Depot that I thought had a nice Eqypt feel to it and had some left over pieces from making the pyramid. So I merged the two together after everything else was done.

Went ahead and made myself a Stargate to go along with all this Egypt stuff. Not the best possible Stargate but I am pretty happy with how it turned out none the less. Also has it's own Vydar ramp and dialer. I have used it to bring reinforcements onto the game board instead of entering from the start zone. Lots of fun since the Stargate can be closed via the dialer before all the reinforcements can get through if you are a crafty opponent.

And here is a pic showing the whole board I set up featuring everything.

 

[Yodaking]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

Alright this is the last of it for now.

I played this temple as 'unholy ground' in which any non Utgar forces standing on or adjectent to it rolled 1 less defense die. Due to the square shape the hexes don't always work prefectly with a basic heroscape board, but it really is not that big of an issue to deal with as long as you are willing. This was one of my early projects and eventually just didn't have the room to store it any longer, so I gave it away as a tourney prize.

 

[EternalThanos86]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

Absolutely great work as always yodaking. The best part is your willingness to offer several of these works of art for prizes! Thank you so much!

So, I really like that bridge and if you still have it, perhaps you could design a map using that bridge for play at the Superhero Showdown?

~ET86

 

[Yodaking]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

No problem. I'd love to bring it down.

 

[Lamaclown]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

Wow!!!

I especially like the temple and the tower. You do a great job with the drybrushing and flocking.

 

[Killz]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

WOW! Those are awesome!
As you know I am working on using up weapons and warriors, and now I see I some great ideas. I was wondering though, how do non fliers get on the castle tower? And I love the egg cartons, I gotta make some. The unholy ground is epic, I like how runa, like a priest, has sacrificed a Krav.

 

[Daddio]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

Yodaking, nice work all around! And thanks so much for posting. It's fun to see your progress throughout all these photos too.

It goes without saying, but the bridge was amazing when you posted it in the contest and still is.

I like the stone formations for your Stonegenge set, and the Egypt themed items are very creative.

 

[Yodaking]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking

WOW! Those are awesome!
As you know I am working on using up weapons and warriors, and now I see I some great ideas. I was wondering though, how do non fliers get on the castle tower? And I love the egg cartons, I gotta make some. The unholy ground is epic, I like how runa, like a priest, has sacrificed a Krav.

For the tower, I just made a rule that once a figure is standing in front of the door, he can move up through the tower and onto the top (via the door there) for a cost of 3 movement. This would in effect represent the opening of both doors and climbing up the stairs inside.

I also said that if the top of the tower was full of figures (max 4) that any figure with flying could still attack one of them with a melee attack. If they killed the figure, they could land on the empty space, if they failed to kill him, they had to land on a tile directly below and adjecent to the figure attacked. This way more figures have a chance to unseat some ranged figures camping up there.

And yeah I thought Runa was just the perfect figure for that altar myself. Built it with her in mind (ie. size) and the KMA figure already had a sprawled out looking pose so it worked out well.

Thanks everyone for the compliments. It is nice to know others like what I'm doing too. I haven't done anything for a while now, but getting these pics posted and talking about them all again just might get me motivated to get working again. It'll have to be after Chirstmas is done and over though.

 

[Yodaking]

Re: Custom work by Yodaking - Updated 1/17

Just finished up some new stuff this weekend. I picked up a couple of D&D Deathcap figures a couple of weeks ago for use in future dungeon themed 'scape. They look pretty cool but are a bit small IMO so I decided to make some full grown shrooms of my own.

I made 5, 1 Hex Mushrooms.

The one with the cone shaped cap is actually orange in color, not red. For some reason it turned out red when I took the pic. One of the Deathcaps I bought is in front so you can see the size difference. Also put a few 'scape figures in the pic for size comparison. Here are the special rules I came up with for the mushrooms I made:

When a small or medium figure standing adjecent to a large mushroom is attacked by a large or huge figure, roll 1 extra defense die.

The concept behind the rule is that a small or medium figure would be able to duck under the cap when facing a large figure, occationally causing the large figure to hit the mushroom instead.

I also made 3, 3 Hex Mushrooms designed to sit in the center of the tile.

One of these is also orange in color. I designed them to be just high enough for small and a few medium figures capable of standing/moving underneath the cap. Most medium, and all large/huge figures would be forced to move around them though. Creating a movement blocker for them and a place to sneak about for small figures.

Here is a pic of all 8 of them. I took this pic without using the flash which allowed the orange one to show up a little bit better. Still doesn't really do the paint job justice though.

Here are a couple of game board pics.

You can see in the second pic that I left one of the 1 hex mushrooms flat on top so that a figure could stand on it.

And here are a few pics showing the action taking place under the caps.

Well that's it. It took me about a week.

Day 1: Carve the mushroom caps and stems out of green foam.
Day 2: Added the bases, glued the caps and stems together, applied 2 coats of modge podge.
Day 3: Spray painted the bottoms of all of them. Let them dry. Spray painted tops of all of them. Let them dry again.
Day 4: Started painting.
Day 5: Finished painting.